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Facebook Announces Global 'Hacker Cup' Competition

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2010
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PC Magazine

Facebook is taking its hackathons global with the launch of the Facebook 2011 Hacker Cup.

"We're starting the Hacker Cup to bring engineers from around the world together to compete in a multi-round programming competition," Tim Stanke, Facebook software engineer said in a blog post. "Contestants will have to successfully solve algorithmic-based problem statements to advance and are ranked by accuracy and speed."

Registration for the competition opens December 20. Hackers will only become eligible after answering at least one question right in the qualifying round, which lasts for 72 hours, starting January 7.

There are three rounds in the contest, two of which will take place online. Three thousand of the top hackers from Online Round 1 will advance to Online Round 2. The top 300 competitors from Online Round 2 will win a t-shirt. Only the top 25 will get to participate in the final round at Facebook's campus on March 11, and Facebook will pay to for their travel and accommodations.

All of the final 25 hackers will win prizes. The champion will go home with $5,000 in his or her pocket. Facebook will award $2,000 to the second place finisher, $1,000 to the third place hacker, and $100 each for those that finish from fourth to 25th place.

"Hacking is a central part of Facebook's culture," Stanke said.

Facebook has used hackathons in the past to help build features like Facebook chat, and Stanke said the Hacker Cup will be an annual event.